Creating context-sensitive help

SCOadmin includes a facility to connect context-sensitive help to your management applications. SCOHelp uses a simple mechanism to associate windows and window elements (referred to hereafter as widgets) with text files.

The help system uses the following abstractions:

widget sum

a unique symbolic tag generated by SCOhelp that is used to associate help with a window or widget. (This sum is based on the full widget name, which can be quite long and identifies its location in the widget tree)

widget tree

the hierarchical arrangement of widget sums of a SCOadmin manager

hook file

a database file that associates widget sums with text files

help node

a help topic file associated with one or more widget sums

help topic

a directory that contains all the help files for a manager

1. Dump the widget sums.

2. Create a help topic and help files.

3. Create a hook file for the topic.

4. Add the help topic to the system.

5. Test the help topic.